NT PDC transfer to new SERVER

[djcrucial]

HELP!!!

First of all my boss does not defrag the existing server he Has went against all of my suggestions ever since I started working here. We are forty five years apart in age. Now he wants to transfer a PDC to a new box using Veritas Disaster Recovery, if there is such a thing. To me that sounds crazy!!! He says the hardware is the same: compaq proliant 1600R bought in 2000 to a HP Proliant DL360 which was just purchased recently. I was always taught in school when you make a server start from scratch. Any thought on migrating or am I using the wrong term. Thanks Guys!!!
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ShackDaddy]

He's probably thinking of Veritas' product Bare Metal Restore which is, in fact, pretty darn powerful. I haven't used it, but it is supposed to make it a lot easier to completely restore a system that's being moved between dissimilar hardware platforms.

http://www.veritas.com/Products/www?c=product&refId=140

I would have thought he was crazy a couple of years ago, but it looks like he's probably done his homework. Trust him, see what you can pick up.

If he's your boss, then he has to take responsibility if the recovery project fails. It should be a fairly safe place to be with regards to responsibility.

ShackDaddy

 

[djcrucial]

Thanks Shack looking at getting a copy of the bare metal next week Thanks! This probably fits us the best

 

[david902]

build the new server, bring it up as a BDC, wait a few days, kill the current PDC and promote the new BDC.

you can always reconnect the old PDC as a backuout plan.

 

[LiverpoolFan]

What you could try is something like this:

1 - Build your new server as a BDC in the domain
2 - Setup script replication
3 - Using the various articles on Microsoft's website, make backups of DHCP/WINS if you have them on your PDC (this involves copying files and doing a restore of various keys, you can get away with WINS as this will update as and when (although I would recommend doing NBTSTAT -RR on your two domain controllers to enforce refresh of the NetBios names))
4 - Stop and disable services as mentioned in point 3 on your PDC
5 - Restore DHCP/WINS services onto your new BDC
6 - Make sure services work (IPConfig /release and renew, event viewer etc)
7 - Promote BDC to PDC, if this works stop replication from the old server on the new, shutdown old server (this will now be a BDC). Copy your scripts into the export dir (this must be done first otherwise you will find your netlogon will be blank after approx 15 mins) and set that as your replication source
8 - Keep for a good few days and keep a good eye on it!

Hope this helps and I don't think I have missed anything!

 

[N0ktar]

Strange you even consider restore, why waste the money? Building a new server is really a lot better solution, you can even keep your original PDC if you want, just manually demote it to BDC (like I did with mine when migrating to Win2K domain). Here's how:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kb...T/RegistryTips/Network/DemotePDCmanually.html